“We just ran into a buzz saw today,” said Clemson head coach Oliver Purnell. “We played an excellent team on their home court that is playing very well.”

This one got out of hand in a hurry, despite early protests by Clemson head coach Oliver Purnell.
Barely 90 seconds into the game, he was up protesting a foul called on Sam Perry, and Purnell continued yelling at referee Gary Maxwell while the Tar Heels prepared to inbound the ball. Finally, referee Mike Wood heard enough and gave Purnell a technical, and two free throws by Jawad Williams made it 4-1.

"I sort of wanted to send a message that we didn't want to be called for touch fouls when they were being very aggressive on the other end," said Purnell. "I certainly wanted that message to be heard and if they wanted to T me up, they T me up."

North Carolina jumped to a 14-1 lead as the Tigers missed their first eight shots. They eventually got to 20-12 on a layup by Vernon Hamilton, but that was the last time the margin was less than 10.

"There was more of the same in the second half," said Purnell. "We just tried to keep playing hard. We tried to keep getting back to our game plan from time to time as we called timeouts to redo that. But, Carolina kept the pressure on us."